Metal Mouth Message Board

So, I'm just over 15 months into treatment. I'm a bit frustrated because I'm trying to close my bite on the sides and my left side is moving super slow. The right side is cooperating and moving well, but not that pesky left side. I wore strong V elastics for much of a year and my teeth barely moved. I've had box elastics for a couple months and they are working well on one side and not so much on the other.

Anyone else out there have teeth moving slower on one side than the other? or am I just really unusual?

That happened to me with my gaps. One side was closing faster than the other. My ortho then asked me which side I chewed on. It seems like the more active the side the faster it moves. I'm not sure how effective it was but I switched my chewing side to the one that moved more slowly. Could have been psychological but it did indeed close a lil faster.

I am having exactly the same problem. My left side is almost completely closed and my right remains open. I am wearing strongest elastics (Thailand) in a triangular shape and haven't noticed anything for a month. Maybe I should start chewing on that side too.

I do chew more on the side that is moving faster. My teeth just don't come close to touching on the other side though so I just can't chew much on that side. With the elastics, I'm trying to pull the teeth together and I've been working to erupt the teeth throughout my treatment. I'd love to get to the point where i can chew more on that side.

TMJJill wrote:I do chew more on the side that is moving faster. My teeth just don't come close to touching on the other side though so I just can't chew much on that side. With the elastics, I'm trying to pull the teeth together and I've been working to erupt the teeth throughout my treatment. I'd love to get to the point where i can chew more on that side.

How long have you been trying to close the bite on that side for? I have only been doing that for 1 month. I wonder if its is possible that it will never close. I am a bit frustrated that I don't see anything happening.

I have the same problem. I have a space in front of my canine-left has nearly closed right has far from. The worse thing about it is that I should get these things off as soon as that space has closed.

Frog wrote:

TMJJill wrote:I do chew more on the side that is moving faster. My teeth just don't come close to touching on the other side though so I just can't chew much on that side. With the elastics, I'm trying to pull the teeth together and I've been working to erupt the teeth throughout my treatment. I'd love to get to the point where i can chew more on that side.

How long have you been trying to close the bite on that side for? I have only been doing that for 1 month. I wonder if its is possible that it will never close. I am a bit frustrated that I don't see anything happening.

I wore fairly heavy "V" elastics on 4 of my molars for 10 months to try to erupt those teeth. I had a small amount of movement with my back molars, then that stopped, the other molars didn't move a lot. I've been wearing trapazoid box elastics for about 3 months now to help close my bite, mostly with the premolars. I'm going to end up needing a couple caps and a replacement crown on 2 of those molars that have been stubborn.

So I just had my appointment yesterday and she changed my elastics configuration to "square" or "box to close my open bite on the back. She hasn't said anything about one side moving faster than the other though. And she is only having me wear elastics at night and not using the strongest elastics. I am almost tempted to use stronger elastics or wearing the ones she gave me during the day and night to speed things up. I feel that wearing them just at night is not going to do much.

my left side is hard to chew on as well...same side I had the extraction so I guess that is normal.

This may sound crazy but I purchased a teething ring from walmart and have started doing 4 sets of 25 bites 3 times per day. my jaw muscles have started to get stronger again doing this

Interesting. A while ago, I thought about seeing about getting a referral to a speech therapist for an evaluation. I think my muscles have been uneven for many years. Your idea is a good one. I may need to try it out sometime.